Koji Makino

Tokyo Institute of Technology, Toyota Motor Corporation (Japan)

Papers

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About

Koji Makino is a robotics researcher whose work spans autonomous multi-robot systems and robotic manipulation, with particular emphasis on solving complex real-world challenges in both coordination and dexterous handling. His early research addressed the fundamental problem of how swarms of autonomous mobile robots can efficiently share positional information across wide operational fields, introducing the innovative "Figure of Confidence" framework to enable coordinated search-and-gather tasks — work that has accumulated citations reflecting its foundational contribution to multi-agent robot coordination. More recently, Makino has turned his attention to one of modern manufacturing's most persistent automation challenges: the robotic handling of deformable objects. His 2024 work on learning wire harness grasping from human hand demonstrations represents a significant step forward in bridging the gap between human dexterity and robotic capability, tackling scenarios where traditional 3D data-driven approaches fall short due to unpredictable object configurations. Together, these contributions illustrate a research trajectory deeply committed to advancing practical robot autonomy — from large-scale swarm coordination to fine-grained manipulation — making Makino's work highly relevant to students and engineers working at the intersection of robotics, automation, and human-robot collaboration.